Fade to black: EP 6 - YuleTide
by maxrpg
Summary: It's Christmas time at the SGC, but that doesn't mean SG-1 can just relax and enjoy the holidays. This is a story based on the many different myths, tales and stories of Christmas done Stargate style. Have you been good this year?.
1. Arose such a clatter

**A/N: This story may scare and upset some readers as you get to a certain part, but without giving away the story I can tell you not to worry, nothing horrible or gruesome happens.**

* * *

**A/N: The USS Charlotte is a real submarine and some of this actually happened, I added an event to fit the story I'm trying to tell.**

In mid November 2005, the Los Angeles class submarine named 'USS Charlotte' left Pearl Harbor heading for Norfolk, Virginia.

Charlotte was travelling under the Arctic ice cap and after a few days in to their journey they picked up something strange on their sonar, an object that was not a ship nor submarine and appeared to be moving in short circles, on approaching the object it suddenly changed course and headed towards them.

The object appeared to stop momentarily ahead of the submarine, then quickly circled all around them like a spiral moving from the front to the back, its movement was so rapid that it a vortex which caused the submarine to rock and do a 360 degree rotation in the water, the crew on board were thrown around the inside but not seriously injured, then as the submarine turned the right way up, the rocking stopped and the object was gone.

The captain ordered the Charlotte to the surface where it broke through the thick ice of the North Pole, once on the surface they spent almost an entire day checking their systems and outer hull for damage but they couldn't find any problems and eventually continued their journey, when they reached their destination the captain filed a report on the encounter with the mysterious object but no further investigations were made and the event was never made public, eventually it was filed under the classification USO 'Unidentified Submerged Objects'.

* * *

**Present**

**Date**: December 23rd

**Location**: Norfolk, Virginia

**Time**: 7:26 PM

It's late December and millions of people around the world are preparing for the Christmas holidays and to spend time with friends and family.

Stephanie is taking her two children, Tommy age 11 and Chloe age 7 shopping in Downtown Norfolk, it's the perfect Christmas time evening, gentle flakes of snow fall from the sky, the streets are filled with people enjoying the festive season, beautiful multicoloured lights hang over the streets, men dressed as Santa Claus stand next to buckets and ringing their bells cheering as they collect money for charity, hundreds of people walking around and coming out of shops carrying stacks of boxes and gifts for loved ones.

They walk down the street holding hands and carrying their purchased gifts, wearing thick woollen coats, hats, scarves and gloves, they're enjoying the jolly atmosphere.

"Mummy, Mummy...look." says Chloe, pointing at a store window with a sign in it saying "See Santa and his reindeer today.".

"I don't think we have time sweetheart, Daddy will be home soon." says Stephanie.

"Yeah, Santa's for babies anyway." says Tommy.

Chloe stands in front of her holding her hand, she puts her adorable 'puppy-dog' face on, "Pleeease." she says.

Stephanie smiles, she can't say no, "Okay, but if there's a long line we won't be able to wait." she says.

So they head in to the store through the big turning doors, as they enter they see shelves and counters filled with toys as far as the eye can see, action figures, board games, giant teddy bears, bikes, dolls and a toy train drives around a track suspended around the walls, a huge Christmas tree stands in the lobby of the four story toy store, stretching from floor to ceiling and covered in white twinkling lights, festive music is being played through the stores speakers.

Directly in front of them and just before the tree is a small stage with a fence around it, inside the fence are reindeer and to the side, sitting on a big golden chair is Santa Claus with a child on his lap asking what they want for Christmas and being very jolly, "Ho..Ho..Ho" can be heard in the distance.

Chloe's face lights up with joy, "Come on, come on mum come on." she says as she pulls her mum by the arm towards Santa.

Luckily the line isn't too long so they decide to wait, as the last child in front of them finishes telling Santa what he wants and has his picture taken, he jumps of Santa's knee and walks away happy with his mum while Santa waves goodbye.

Santa waves Chloe over, "Go ahead honey." says Stephanie, and Chloe goes over to Santa who picks her up and sits her down on his knee.

"Well hello there, and what is your name?" asks Santa.

"Chloe." she replies.

"Pleased to meet you, Chloe. Have you been a good girl this year?." asks Santa.

Chloe nods, "Yeah." she replies.

"Good girl. What would you like me to bring you for Christmas?." asks Santa.

"A pram for my dolly." replies Chloe.

"A pram for your dolly.." says Santa.

"Yeah..a yellow one with flowers on it." says Chloe.

Santa lets out a jolly laugh, "That sounds like a very special pram." he says, he then presses her cute little nose, "I'll see what I can do." he says.

Chloe hugs Santa, "Thank you Santa." she says as she slides off his knee.

Santa turns to Tommy, "Do you want to tell Santa what you want for Christmas?." he asks.

"No thanks." replies Tommy, lucky a little grumpy.

Chloe pulls on Santa's arm and he leans down to listen, "He doesn't believe in you." she whispers.

"Ooh." says Santa.

"Thank you." says Stephanie as they head passed Santa and walk back towards the store exit.

"Santa's going to get me a pram." says Chloe.

"No he isn't...he's not even real." says Tommy.

"Tommy." says Stephanie in a firm tone.

* * *

Later that evening the kids are being put to bed, Chloe is laying under her sheets clutching her dolly.

Stephanie tucks the sheets in, "There we go, snug and warm." she says.

"Is Santa real mummy?." asks Chloe.

"Yes he is, honey. Ignore your brother he's just grumpy." replies Stephanie, "A grumpy, grump, grumpo." she says while laughing and tickling Chloe.

"Night mummy." says Chloe.

Stephanie kisses her and heads for the door, "Night sweetheart." she says as she turns off the light and closes the door half way, she then heads for Tommy's room and knocks on the door and opens it, "Tommy?" she says.

Tommy is laying in his bed playing with an action figure, "Yeah?" he says.

Stephanie goes over and sits on his bed and straightens his sheets, "You know you upset your sister with what you said." she says.

"But it's true..he's not real." says Tommy.

"You don't know that. Besides, is it so bad to let your sister believe in something that makes her happy." says Stephanie, "You don't want to see her sad do you?." she says, "Do you?" she says while poking him under his arms where he's ticklish.

Tommy laughs from the tickles and smiles, he lets out a breath, "No." he says.

"Okay then. You're her big brother, she looks up to you and you're meant to take care of her. No more of this Santa doesn't exist talk okay?." says Stephanie.

"Okay mum." says Tommy, they hug and kiss good night.

Stephanie tucks him back in to bed and stands by the door, "I love you kiddo." she says.

"Love you too mum." replies Tommy.

She turned off the light and quietly closes the door as Tommy rolls over and goes to sleep, she heads down stairs and in to the living room and sits cosily snuggled up on the sofa with her husband James, "Get the kids off alright?." he asks.

"Yes, they're sleeping now." says Stephanie.

They spend the next hour just talking to each other, drinking wine and keeping warm from the heat of the fireplace, eventually they fall asleep.

* * *

**December 24th 1 AM**

The air inside the house begins to get cold, Stephanie is woken up by the erratic glow of the fireplace, a breeze is blowing down the chimney disrupting the flames, she sits up straight and rubs her arms shivering from the cold, she grabs a blanket off the back of the sofa and wraps it around herself then stands up and goes over to the fire, grabbing a poking fork she bends down and attempts to get the fire going again, suddenly she hears a loud bang.

She quickly stands up straight again and looks up the stairs, James is awoken by the noise, "What was that?" he asks, then they hear a loud scream, "Chloe." says Stephanie, she throws the fork on to the floor and runs frantically up the stairs with James, "Chloe." they shout.

As they reach the landing they see Tommy open his bedroom door, "What's going on." he asks.

They reach Chloe's room and swiftly open the door, Stephanie barges passed James and runs over to her bed, pulling back the sheets all they see is an empty bed, James searches the closet while Stephanie ducks down and looks under the bed, as she lifts herself back up she sees Chloe's doll laying on the floor at the end of the bed, she picks it up and gets to her feet.

They they hear the banging of the window shutters and as they look over they see the window is open about 10 inches, they run over and open it and look out, on the slope of the room below the window they see foot prints, "Oh my God." shouts Stephanie and they run back down the stairs and open the front door and head outside.

Looking around at the ground they see nothing, no footprints or trails, the snow hasn't been disturbed, they look up at her window but see nothing there either, standing and looking around in the freezing cold snow they have great concern and worry on their faces, "Chloe" shouts Stephanie so loud it echoes through the night air and wakes the entire street, she drops to her knees and begins to cry, clutching Chloe's doll.

* * *

**Date**: December 23rd

**Location**: Stargate Command

**Time**: 8:04 PM

Even though it's Christmas time, life and work at the SGC continues and remains unchanged, the bad guys of the universe won't take a day off, so they can't either.

O'Neill has just returned from Washington where he attended a meeting with the President, world leaders and the IOA to discuss how best to use their newly obtained ship, the Lantis, he's standing in the elevator looking a little tired from the long flight...and boring meeting, he's heading for the gate level, the doors open and he steps out.

He squeezes his eyes and places his fist over his mouth as he yawns while exiting the elevator, he's quickly looks up in shock when something ticklish and soft hits him in the face, he turns around hitting it out of the way with his hand, he turns around again and another hits him in the face, this continues for several feet until it stops.

"Are you okay Sir?" asks Walter, who came to meet him at the elevator.

O'Neill stands in confusion as he stares towards the elevator and sees tinsel draped and dangling around it, "What the hell is this?." he asks.

"Tinsel..Sir." replies Walter.

"Yes, thank you I know what it is...I mean why is it here?." asks O'Neill.

"She said it was alright Sir, she said you gave her permission." says Walter.

O'Neill shakes his head, "Who?" he asks, then he stops Walter before he can reply, "Let me guess...She's around 5 feet tall with blonde hair and goes by the name of Alisana." he says.

"Yep." replies Walter with a smirk.

"Where is she I'm going to..." says O'Neill, he stops talking when he turns around, looking down the hallway he sees fairy lights hanging through all the hallways, "..I'm going to kill her." he says and starts walking towards his office.


	2. Deck the halls

The SGC has been decorated festively with tinsel, fairy lights, candles and various other dangling glittery decorations, O'Neill has just found out about it and as he's spent the best part of two days meeting with the world leaders and taken a long flight home, he's tired and not really in a good mood.

The rest of SG-1 are currently in the briefing room, nicely decorated and plates of party food spread over the table, festive music is being played from a stereo in the corner and everyone is enjoying themselves having a bit of fun.

O'Neill gets to the briefing room door and looks inside, he sees SG-1 dancing around wearing tinsel as hats and belts or just casually draped over them, Carter, Alisana and Vala are dancing to '_Rockin' Around the Christmas tree_', Mitchell and Daniel are attacking each other with party poppers while Teal'c stands happily by the food table holding a plate of tater tots and wearing a Santa hat.

Suddenly the music stops and everyone turns to see O'Neill standing by the stereo with a not so happy look on his face.

"General." says Carter, pulling off her tinsel hat and standing to attention, "Back already?" she asks.

Everyone else stops what they're doing and looks at O'Neill.

"Yeah, already. Does someone want to tell me what's going on?" asks O'Neill.

"We're having a party." says Vala with a big smile on her face.

O'Neill doesn't look impressed, "I can see that." he says, he takes a few steps forward, "May I remind you that you're all still on duty and this is still a military facility, these...these..decorations violate every code in the book, what if I had returned with the joined chiefs or members of the IOA and they saw this? It would be my neck on the line." he says.

"Jack, it was just..." says Daniel.

"No..Daniel, I don't want to hear it." says O'Neill, interrupting Daniel, "The party is over. I want this room cleaned up and all the decorations removed..NOW." he says quite firmly.

They can all see the serious look on his face and the tone of his voice so do as he says, "Yes Sir." says Carter, they all start leaving the room.

"Sorry Sir." says Mitchell as he passes by O'Neill.

Teal'c stops at the side of him, "Tater tot?" he asks, holding out his plate, nothing is said, Teal'c can see that O'Neill isn't in the mood so he silently walks off.

"Alisana, a word please." says O'Neill, "Shut the door." he says.

* * *

Alisana shuts the door and walks over to O'Neill who has his back turned, "It was just a bit of fun." she says.

"What the hell were you thinking?" shouts O'Neill, turning to face Alisana.

Alisana lowers her head feeling a little fear from the punishing tone of O'Neill's voice, "I only wanted to have some fun." she says.

"This is a military facility...not a playground. You have no right to do this without my permission..WHICH by the way I would never have given. Look at what you've done to this place, the decorations all over are a health hazard..not to mention a fire hazard with all those damn twinkling lights everywhere...this is not your house, you can't just do whatever you feel like." shouts O'Neill.

"Yes it is." shouts Alisana as she raises her head, starting to cry.

"What?!" replies O'Neill.

"This is my home. You, Carter, Mitchell, Daniel, Vala, Teal'c and most of the others on this base are leaving tomorrow to spend the next few days at home...but I.." says Alisana.

"It's the holidays." says O'Neill, interrupting her.

"BUT I.." shouts Alisana, "I have to stay here. I have a room in a converted office here on this base, I sleep and wake up every day in that room and EVERY DAY I leave my room and see the same grey boring walls, but you...you don't have to see that every day..you yourself were just in Washington." says Alisana.

"I was at a meeting with the President and the IOA." says O'Neill.

"But you still went out. At the end of the day you get to leave this base and go home...me..I'm always here...and YES I put up Christmas decorations because I wanted to make it nicer in here and cover up these damn grey walls." says Alisana, walking over to a wall and kicking it with anger.

"Okay this is your home. But that doesn't mean you can just go around doing things like this without authorisation." replies O'Neill.

"FINE" shouts Alisana, "Then maybe I'll just stay in my room for the rest of my life then huh, will that make you happy?...or maybe you'll be happier if I wasn't here at all." she says.

"All things considered..yes I probably would be happier." says O'Neill.

Alisana is shocked at what he just said and it makes her upset and cry even more, "Fine." she shouts, then storms off out of the room.

O'Neill realises what he just said, he didn't mean it, "Alisana wait, I didn't mean that." he says as the door slams shut.

O'Neill rubs his forehead in frustration and then kicks over a chair, "Damn it." he shouts, then he walks over to the window, looking out over the gate room he sees the Stargate surrounded by mistletoe, he hunches down and lets out a breath and shakes his head, "God." he utters to himself.

* * *

A few minutes later there's a knock on the briefing room door and it opens, "Sir." says Carter, looking through the party open door.

O'Neill stands up and turns, "What is it Carter?." he asks.

Carter walks in to the room shutting the door behind her and walks over to O'Neill, "Are you okay, Sir?." she asks.

"I take it you heard all of that." says O'Neill.

"I could hear the yelling down the hall Sir." says Carter, "Don't you think you were a little hard on her." she says.

"Oh don't start with me Carter." says O'Neill.

Carter picks up the chair O'Neill kicked over and sits on it, "I'm not starting Sir...but she does have a point." she says.

O'Neill then pulls out a chair and sits next to Carter, he looks a little drained, "Yeah I know..but what can I do about it." he says.

"Get her her own place." says Carter, "A small apartment somewhere where we can keep an eye on her but at least she'll have her own space." she says.

O'Neill shrugs his shoulders, "I'm not authorised to do that." he says.

"But the IOA is...just talk to them get them to give you the funding for her. Teal'c was allowed to get his own place eventually, there's no reason why they shouldn't do the same for Alisana." says Carter.

"Teal'c was arrested for murder when he got his own place." says O'Neill.

Carter smiles, "That was just bad timing, that doesn't mean the same thing will happen to Alisana, it's not like she's going to go on a killing spree. She may look like a 17 year old kid but she's much more mature than that, she can handle herself and after everything she's done for us I think it's only fair that we make this happen for her, she deserves it Sir." she says.

"I'll talk to the IOA." says O'Neill.

"Thank you Sir. She's a good kid." says Carter.

"I know." says O'Neill and he stands up, "I need to go apologise to her." he says.

Suddenly the alarms at the SGC start sounding, "Now what." says O'Neill and he and Carter head down the spiral stairs to the control room.

"Walter, what's going on." asks O'Neill.

"The base sensors detected an unauthorised transport beam, Sir." replies Walter.

"Did someone beam in?." asks Carter.

Walter is checking the sensor logs, "No. It was an outgoing beam...it originated from your lab." he says.

"My lab?" says Carter, looking puzzled, they head to her lab.

They reach Carter's lab and run inside, Dr Bill Lee is standing at a table next to an Asgard beaming module that he was trying to reverse engineer.

"Bill, what happened?." asks Carter.

Bill shrugs his shoulders, "I..I..I have no idea, I just left the lab for a few minutes while I went to grab some coffee from the mess hall and I was on my way back when the alarms went off." he says.

Carter goes around the table and stands next to Bill, "Was it a malfunction?." she asks.

"No..no..something was definitely beamed out of here." says Bill, "But everything's here as far as I can tell" he says after quickly glancing around the room.

"Then what was beamed out?." asks Carter.

"I think I know." says O'Neill, looking concerned and holding up a piece of tinsel he found on the floor, it's the same tinsel Alisana was wearing on her head.

* * *

**Date**: December 23rd

**Location**: Daedalus

**Time**: 11:45 PM

The Daedalus is on it's way to Pegasus to deliver supplies to Atlantis, they're currently on the edge of the Milky Way galaxy running full diagnostics on the ship before proceeding further, it's standard procedure, they don't want to suffer a malfunction and be stranded between galaxies.

Colonel Caldwell walks on to the bridge drinking a cup of coffee, "How are the diagnostics coming?." he asks.

"Good so far Sir, everything is in the green and we should be done in the next few minutes." replies Sgt Marks.

"Get ready to take us in to hyperspace as soon as the diagnostics are complete, I want to get these supplies to Atlantis as quickly as possible." says Caldwell, taking a set in his chair.

"Yes Sir." replies Sgt Marks.

Then the sensors start beeping, "Err, Sir...sensors have detected an object approaching our position." says Sgt Marks.

"A ship?." asks Caldwell.

"Unknown Sir, I can't get a clear reading." replies Sgt Marks.

"Open a channel." says Caldwell and communications are activated, "This is Colonel Caldwell, commander of the Earth ship Daedalus, please identify yourself." he says.

A few moments go by with no response, Caldwell looks over to Marks and Marks just shakes his head indicating they're receiving nothing.

"This is Colonel Caldwell, commander of the Daedalus. We're peaceful explorers and we mean you no harm, but you're approaching our ship and failure to respond to this transmission will lead us to believe your intentions are hostile, please identify yourselves?." says Caldwell.

"It's not responding and will be in visual range in 30 seconds." says Sgt Marks.

"Raise shields, arm all missile batteries, ready all railguns, as soon as they enter weapons range get a lock with the Asgard weapons." orders Caldwell.

As the bridge of the Daedalus goes dark, illuminated only by the flashing red light of the battle stations light, they look out of the window, "Visual in 10 seconds." says Sgt Marks.

"Be ready to fire on my mark." says Caldwell.

"Should be visible..now." says Sgt Marks.

Looking out of the window they see a light approaching rapidly towards the Daedalus, before Caldwell can give the order to fire, it reaches the ship but passes right through it like a ghost through a wall, the crew can see a faint stream of red light as it passes through them and they hear strange sounds.

"What just happened?." asks Caldwell.

Sgt Marks looks confused, "I don't know Sir, it just...passed right through us." he says.

"What was that noise?." asks Caldwell.

Sgt Marks shrugs his shoulders, "It sounded like...bells." he says.

Caldwell stands up and goes over to Marks, "Where's it heading?." he asks.

"Err..if it continues on it's present course it's heading for Earth, at it's current speed it'll be there in less than 12 hours." replies Sgt Marks.

"Turn us around, set a course for Earth...and contact Stargate Command and inform them of the situation." orders Caldwell as he retakes his seat.


	3. Better watch out

**Date**: December 23rd

**Location**: New York

**Time**: 10:05 PM

Feeling upset and alone, Alisana felt she was no longer welcome at the SGC so she decided to leave, she knew she would never be able to get unnoticed so she made her way to Carter's lab where she knew they had an Asgard beaming module, after waiting several minutes for Dr Bill Lee to leave the lab unattended she snook inside, after configuring the device she threw her tinsel hat on to the floor of the lab and activated the module and beamed herself out of the SGC.

She materialised in New York standing in the middle of the street, the heavy snow fall masked her appearance so no one on the streets actually saw her appear, looking around at the people and tall buildings around her she suddenly jumps and runs out of the way after hearing a loud beeping car horn and seeing a Taxi heading towards her, she trips over the curb and falls backwards on to the pavement.

"*Beep*..*Beep*...watch where you're going." shouts the annoyed taxi driver, slowing for a moment as he passes by and then continues on, "Idiot." he says.

Alisana is slightly shaken after nearly getting run over but she manages to get to her feet, brushing the snow off her back and bottom she steps to the middle of the pavement and then starts walking down the street through the crowds of late night shoppers.

After walking for around 20 minutes she starts to feel hungry and sees a hot dog vendor on the street corner in front of her, she goes over to it and takes in a wonderful odour.

"Those smell nice." she says, "What are they?." she asks.

"Dogs." replies the vendor, rubbing his gloved hands together fighting off the cold.

Alisana leans down real close to the dogs warming on the hot plate on the top of the cart, "Mmmm." she sounds.

The vendor holds out his arm ushering her face away, "Hey hey, what are you doing." he says, "Do you want one of not?." he asks.

"Yes please." replies Alisana.

The vendor grabs a bun and places a dog in to it then smoothers it with caramelised onions, "There you go..one dog." he says.

Alisana reaches out for it, "Thanks." she says with a smile.

"That's 3 bucks." says the vendor, pulling back the hot dog as Alisana reaches out for it.

"Oh...errm." says Alisana, checking her pockets, "I don't have any money." she says, looking disappointed.

The vendor shakes his head, "Get outa here." he says.

"Can I still have it?." asks Alisana.

"Can you still have it?..NO you can't have it, no money..no dog." says the vendor, "Get outa here." he shouts.

Alisana is confused why he won't let her have the dog, but the tone in his voice frightens her so she turns and walks away, "Sorry." she says.

"Damn time wasters." says the vendor, throwing the unsold dog in to a bin behind his cart and shaking his head.

* * *

She continues walking for a further 20 minutes and the streets get quieter and the snow falls heavier with a strong cold wind blowing through the streets, as it gets colder and colder she walks in to an alleyway and stands against the wall out of the cold and hunched up feeling the chill, the wind softly howls around her.

Someone grabs her shoulder from behind, they pull her around and pin her against the wall, it's a young boy and girl in their late teens, the boy pulls out a flick knife and hold it up close to Alisana's face, "What are you doing here?." says the boy.

"Just getting out of the cold." replies Alisana in a shaky voice.

"This is my alley...you're going to have to pay if you want to stay here." says the boy.

The girl is standing at the entrance to the alley looking out for people passing, "Hurry up Scott." she says to the boy.

"Quiet, Hailey...just look out for cops." says Scott, "Give me you money." he says.

Alisana shakes her head, "I don't have any money." she says.

Scott checks her pockets for cash and arms for jewellery, still keeping the knife close to her face.

Hailey runs over to them, "What's taking so long." she says.

"She doesn't have anything." replies Scott, "Where's the money?" he shouts.

"I told you I don't have any." replies Alisana.

"What's SG-1?" asks Hailey, looking at the badge on the arm of Alisana's jacket.

Alisana shakes her head, "It's...it's nothing." she says.

"Get her jacket...I want her jacket..take it off." says Hailey.

"You heard her.." says Scott, then he unzips are forcibly removes her jacket, "Take it off!" he says.

Scott takes off her jacket and passes it over, Hailey puts it on, "Wicked Jacket." she says.

Alisana struggles trying to get the jacket back, "That's mine, give it back." she shouts, she almost manages to struggle free and grab her jacket but then Scott punches her in the face and pushes her away, she falls on to the floor and crashes in to the side of some round bins.

"Stupid b*tch." says Scott and he laughs, "Let's get out of here. Let's go." he says, running out of the alley with Hailey.

A few minutes later Alisana pulls herself up slightly and crawls over to the wall, she sits with her back against the wall at the side of a bin and hunches in to a ball, because they took her jacket she's now only wearing her boots, the pants of her SG uniform and a white sleeveless vest so she's now extremely cold and feels even worse than she did before.

* * *

**Date**: December 23rd

**Location**: Stargate Command / New York

**Time**: 10:39 PM

It's been over half an hour since they discovered Alisana used the Asgard module to beam herself out of the SGC and since then Carter and Bill have been trying to figure out the coordinates she was beamed too, they know she's still on Earth but need to figure out exactly where.

"I don't understand, why would she do this?." asks Vala.

O'Neill feels responsible and has been pacing around feeling guilty about what he said to her.

"It's my fault alright...mine." says O'Neill.

"How is it your fault?." asks Daniel.

Carter is working at her laptop and looks up at O'Neill, she doesn't say anything though.

O'Neill takes a breath, "I...I told her we'd be better off if she wasn't here." he says.

"You what?" says Daniel, looking very disappointed.

"Why would you do such a thing O'Neill?." says Teal'c.

"I didn't mean it...it wasn't intentional." says O'Neill, "Look we were arguing and she said maybe I'd be happier without her and in the heat of the argument I...I agreed with her." he says.

Everyone looks a little disappointed in O'Neill but are all very concerned for her welfare.

"We have to find her." says O'Neill.

"I have it Sir." says Carter, standing up and walking over to the Asgard module.

"Where did she go?." asks O'Neill.

"The coordinates place her somewhere inside New York City." replies Carter, "I'm configuring the device now." she says.

O'Neill runs out of the lab and comes back a few minutes later with a pile of jackets and some radios, "Put these on." he says as he throws everyone a jacket, "You can beam us there right?." he asks.

"Yes." replies Carter, they all move and stand bunched together at the side of the room, "Bill, I'm taking this locator with me so you can beam us back when we find her." she says.

The Asgard beam module is activated and SG-1 are transported to New York City at the same coordinates Alisana was transported too and they're standing in the middle of the road, "Watch out." shouts Mitchell when he sees traffic approaching and they all run to the pavement narrowly avoiding being run over by several cars.

"*Beep*...morons." shouts a disgruntled driver of one of the cars.

"Bite me." shouts Vala, she then makes a rude gesture with her hand to the driver.

The driver stops his car and gets out, "Have you got something to say lady." he shouts as he walks towards them.

Teal'c walks towards the threatening driver who then loses his bottle and runs back to his car, he gets inside and quickly drives away.

"Easy, Teal'c." says O'Neill, patting him on the shoulder.

"Okay, this is where she beamed too, where too now?." asks Carter.

"We split up." says O'Neill as he hands out radios, "Vala, Daniel you go that way. Teal'c, Mitchell you go that way. Carter and I'll take the opposite side, report in if you find her." he says.

"Check the stores and we'll meet up at Central Park." says Carter.

They all head off to search the city for Alisana.

Back at Stargate Command, Walter has just received a transmission from the Daedalus informing him of their encounter with the mysterious object, unfortunately he's unable to contact O'Neill because he's currently off base, the Daedalus has also informed him that the object has picked up speed and will reach Earth within an hour, Walter acknowledges the transmission and passes the information on to Nasa who will monitor the object.

* * *

**Date**: December 24th

**Location**: New York

**Time**: 1:27 AM

After being denied food and mugged for her jacket in an alleyway, Alisana has remained cold and hungry and hunched up in a ball and shivering by the bins in the alley for the past few hours, she slowly opens her frost covered eyelids when she hears a faint sound through the howling of the freezing wind, she looks up and snow flakes fall in to her eyes.

She hears the sound again and it sounds like a scream so she gets to her feet, shivering and weak she walks to the alley entrance and looks out, she doesn't see anyone and the streets are quiet and free of traffic, when she hears the sound getting louder she gets a bearing on it and looks upwards, she sees something flying slowly across the sky but she can't fully make it out because of the heavy snow.

As she widens her eyes and lifts up her hand in an attempt to block the snow from her vision she can just make out what looks like a small ship with a transparent bubble underneath it, inside she can see a little girl banging on the bubble with her fists and screaming, it sounds like she's saying "Help.".

Alisana stands and watches as the ship appears to get lower as if it's about to land somewhere, then she runs across the road in the direction of the ship to follow it, it's not easy, the snow and the wind make it difficult to move quickly but she battles her way through it.


	4. Tree

**Date**: December 24th

**Location**: New York

**Time**: 1:10 AM

SG-1 have been searching the area of New York that Alisana beamed too for a few hours now, they searched inside stores, alleyways, clubs and tube stations and asked lots of people if they've seen her but have come up empty, checking in with each other over the radios they decide to head for Central Park where they agreed to meet before starting their search.

"Copy that Sir, we'll meet you there." says Mitchell over his radio.

Teal'c and Mitchell are standing beside a small news stand at the edge of the city, it's a slightly run down area with no people or traffic around and it's very quiet, as they start to turn around and head for the park they hear a car alarm go off and then they see a group of youths running towards them shouting and giggling on the opposite side of the street.

Mitchell shakes his head, "Kids." he says, "Come on lets get going." he adds.

"Wait..." says Teal'c, holding out his hand stopping Mitchell.

"What?" asks Mitchell.

Teal'c points to the youths, "I believe I see her." he says.

Mitchell looks in concentration through the thick snow at the youths, he sees the SGC jacket, "That is her." he says, and he and Teal'c start running across the street, "Hey Alisana." he shouts.

The youths spot them crossing the street and shouting over, they stop in shock thinking they're about to get caught, Mitchell and Teal'c also stop running, "That is not Alisana." says Teal'c looking at the girl wearing the jacket.

"Run." shouts one of the youths and they run off down a narrow street.

"Hey...hey." shouts Mitchell as they run after them.

As they chase the youths down the street they have to avoid bins and boxes being thrown at them by the youths, "Wait, we just want to talk to you." shouts Mitchell, they get to a cross section at the end of the street and the youths split up running in different directions, Mitchell and Teal'c continue following the girl.

The girl runs down an alleyway and comes to a dead end when she reaches a tall wall, she looks around panicking and then turns with her back to the wall and sees Mitchell and Teal'c run up the alley and stop ahead of her, Mitchell hunches down a little catching his breath, "Wooohw...you sure can run fast." he says.

The girl looks around and sees a pile of wood at the side of her, she picks up a large block and holds it out in front of her like a sword, "Keep away from me...I'll use this..I swear." she says.

They start walking towards her, "Just put it down, we're not going to hurt you...just want to talk to you." says Mitchell holding out his hand trying to calm her down, as they approach her and get just a few feet away she throws the wood on the floor and tries to run passed them but Teal'c grabs her, with a tight grip around her waist he leans slightly backwards lifting her off the ground and she struggles kicking her legs in the air, "Get off of me" she shouts.

"Hey just..just calm down." says Mitchell, "Oooor...ouch." he groans when he gets kicked in the crotch.

Teal'c carries her over and pins her against the wall facing away from him, he holds her arms behind her back and uses his feet to keep hers from moving, "Remain calm." he says, "We will not harm you." he adds.

Mitchell wobbles over to them, still in a bit of pain, "Now...where'd you get that jacket?." he asks.

"You cops?." says Hailey.

"No. We're looking for our friend...you're wearing her jacket. Now where did you get it?." says Mitchell.

She remains tight lipped and says nothing, "Look...you can either tell us..or you can tell the cops...your choice." says Mitchell.

"Okay...okay." says Hailey, Teal'c loosens his grip and turns her around, "We got it off a girl...she gave it to me." she says.

"You are lying." says Teal'c.

"That's it I'm calling the cops." says Mitchell.

"Okay, alright, wait. Your friend, the blonde right? We found her standing alone in an alley and I liked her jacket so I took it." says Hailey.

"You mugged her?." says Mitchell, in a very angry tone.

"Yeah we mugged her, I'm no saint, alright...you gotta do what you gotta do to survive on these streets. I'm not sorry either." says Hailey.

"This alley you said you found her in, where is it?." asks Mitchell.

"Three blocks that way." says Hailey, reluctantly and pointing in the direction, "Can I go now." she says.

"Yeah you can go...she better be there or I'll find you again." says Mitchell.

Hailey tries to walk away but she's stopped by Teal'c, "First you will return the jacket." he demands, Hailey takes off the jacket and pushes it in to Teal'c hand, "Here." she says, then she's allowed to leave and runs away, "Buttholes." she shouts as she leaves.

Mitchell immediately gets on his radio and informs the others that they may have found Alisana, they all turn around and rush to that location.

* * *

**Date**: December 24th

**Location**: New York

**Time**: 1:48 AM

Alisana has been running through the streets and alleyways following the ship, she stops occasionally to get a visual on it and determine where its heading, as she gets closer to it she sees that it's starting to descend and land on top of a 6 story apartment building, she stands in the street at the front of the building and looks up watching it as it lands.

As the ship lands on the roof and goes out of view she looks down and around, she runs a few meters up the street and sees an alleyway at the side of the building so makes her way down it, at the side of the building is a ladder leading to a fire escape and she starts climbing up it.

When she gets to the roof she sees a ship about 10 feet long and 5 feet high and wide, it's hovering a few feet above the roof top, she gets her feet over the shallow rim of the room and ducks down behind an air conditioning unit so not to be seen, she slowly looks over the unit and sees the ship but doesn't see any movement, she sees another unit and hurries across to it.

Looking out from the side she sees a glass dome under the ship and a little girl laying inside of it, the little girl spots her and crawls along the bottom of the dome and bangs on it, "Help me." she shouts, her voice is muffled, Alisana places her finger on her lips asking the little girl to shush and be quiet.

Alisana looks around again to make sure no one is around and then makes her way over and places her hands on the dome next to the girls, "Shush..I'll get you out." she whispers, she gets to her feet and climbs on to the ship looking for a way to release the girl but can't find anything, then she spots what look like controls and reaches over to use them.

As she reaches for the controls she's shot with some type of weapon similar to a Zat blast and knocked unconscious laying on the top of the ship.

* * *

**Date**: December 24th

**Location**: New York

**Time**: 2:00 AM

SG-1 make it to the alley where Hailey told them she left Alisana, they rush through it looking for her.

"Alisana." shouts O'Neill.

"Alisana." shouts Vala and the others continue to shout her name, they check all through the alley but don't find her.

They all come back to the front of the alley and look out in to the street and surrounding houses/buildings.

"She's not here. She must have moved on." says Carter, "She'll be freezing without her jacket, she can't have gotten far."

Then they hear a loud humming noise and looking up they see a ship ascending in to the sky, then it turns and flies towards them and over their heads in the sky above, as they watch it pass overhead they see the dome underneath it and just make out Alisana inside it, "That's her...ALISANA." shouts Daniel as it shoots off in to the distance.

"The hell was that thing?." asks Mitchell.

"I don't know but we have to follow it. Carter!" says O'Neill.

"Yes Sir." says Carter who gets on her radio, "Bill this is Sam, beam us back to the SGC now." she says.

* * *

**ALL EVENTS AND TIMELINES NOW CONVERGE**

The object detected by the Daedalus has enter the solar system and is heading for Earth at great speed.

Bill successfully manages to beam SG-1 back to the SGC and they reappear in the lab.

"We need to get to the control room Sir, I can track the ship from there." says Carter, and they all rush to the control room.

As they come up the stairs in to the control room, Carter takes a seat, "Walter, bring up the ariel and orbiting satellite sensors." she says.

"What's going on?." asks Walter.

"Alisana was taken in some type of ship, we need to track it and find out where it's taking her." replies Carter.

"It's here already?." says Walter.

"What do you mean..you knew it was here?." asks O'Neill.

"The Daedalus reported a ship or object heading for Earth a few hours ago." replies Walter.

Carter has the sensors on line and has begun tracking, "He's right Sir, I'm picking up two unidentifiable signals, ones heading North over the Arctic Ocean...the others ones just entering our atmosphere." she says.

* * *

The object entered our solar system and is now descending through Earth's atmosphere, when it reaches a few miles above the surface it straightens out and heads West over the Atlantic, as it does, a circular section of it breaks away and heads South.

The section reaches the South Pole and descends rapidly like a missile and crashes in to the surface, moments later the center starts rising and funnels out as it raises upwards from the object, it looks like a silver upside-down cone or Christmas tree, although it looks like one complete object, the 'cone' is actually separated in to 5 sections, it reaches it's peak and stops raising.

Each section of the cone begins rotating, with each one rotating in the opposite direction to the last, then as the rotation speeds up, lights start pulsing up from its base and up through each section to the peak and it builds a charge.

As the object fully charges it discharges a strong beam of light up in to the atmosphere, the light begins to spread like an umbrella and gradually surrounds the planet.

In the control room of the SGC everyone has been hovering around Carter looking at the screens in front of her, "Carter...what's happening?." asks Mitchell.

"I'm not sure but I've seen similar energy signatures before, I think whatever this thing is it's generating a shield around the entire planet, if these energy levels are anything to go by then it's a pretty damn strong one too." says Carter.

* * *

"General, the Daedalus just dropped out of hyperspace." says Walter.

O'Neill goes over, "Caldwell, this is General O'Neill do you read?." he says over the radio.

"Loud and clear General." replies Caldwell, "What's going on, we're seeing something really weird out here." he says.

"Yeah listen, can you lock on to that energy source from up there?." asks O'Neill.

"Yes Sir we can." replies Caldwell.

O'Neill looks at Carter, "It's unpopulated right?." he asks.

"Yes Sir, it's the South Pole. Shouldn't be anyone around for miles." says Carter.

"Okay, Caldwell. Destroy that thing." says O'Neill.

The Daedalus moves in to position and gets a lock on the object generating the shield.

"Fire." orders Caldwell to Sgt Marks.

Two blasts from the Asgard beam are fired on the target but they're absorbed by the shield surrounding the planet and don't even penetrate the atmosphere.

"What the hell. Fire missiles." orders Caldwell.

"Firing missiles." says Sgt Marks.

Several missiles are fired but they exploded when they reach the shield.

"General, both missiles and Asgard weapons are ineffective...they cant penetrate the shield." says Caldwell, sounding confused.

Everyone in the control room share a look of disbelief, even Carter looks confused and doesn't really understand what's going on.


	5. Twinkle, Twinkle

The mysterious object that descended on to the South Pole has been generating some type of shield around Earth for almost an hour, the Daedalus is currently in orbit and has been unsuccessfully attempting to destroy it, the shield not only absorbs weapons fire but it's gradually blocking out all light from the sun which is causing temperatures to rapidly plummet, it's even started snowing in some of the hottest places on Earth such as the Sahara Desert.

Carter as been tracking both the object and the ship that carried Alisana, while the object that entered out atmosphere remains over the Atlantic, the ship carrying Alisana appears to have stop moving and is currently located somewhere in the North Pole.

While the rest of SG-1 suit up in full gear ready to beam to the North Pole and find Alisana, General O'Neill has been speaking with the President and IOA on what course of action they should take next, it has been decided that they should attack and destroy the shield generating device as their top priority, F-302's are currently being mobilized at McMurdo base and are set to attack this thing with everything they've got.

O'Neill comes down the spiral staircase in to the control room, he sees the others geared up and checking their guns, "Are we ready to go?." he asks.

"Yes Sir, we have the coordinates to the ship." says Carter.

"What are they doing about the other ones?." asks Mitchell, as he passes O'Neill his gear.

"They're going to take out that shield, 302's are ready to be deployed in the next few minutes." replies O'Neill.

"Question is who are they and what are they doing here." says Daniel.

"You don't think it's the Ori..do you?." asks Vala.

Carter shakes her head, "No. The ship we saw definitely wasn't Ori design." she says.

"There's only one way to find out who's behind this...lets go." says O'Neill, locking a mag in to his P90.

"Right. We need to get to my lab for the beam out." says Carter, and they all head to the lab.

* * *

**At the North Pole**

The ship holding Alisana and the little girl is flying quickly in a straight line a few feet above the ice, eventually it starts to slow down and a few meters ahead of it the air begins to distort and a larger ship de-cloaks, it must have been there for hundreds of years because only the top of the ship is visible, the rest is buried underneath the thick ice.

As the smaller ship gets closer a large door opens downwards and it flies inside, it turns 180 degrees so it's facing outwards and then slowly lands as the large door closes and the ship cloaks again.

Some time later Alisana regains consciousness, laying on a metallic floor she opens her eyes and holds her head briefly nursing a headache she has from whatever knocked her out, looking around she can see she's in a large room and she can see yellow lines on the floor around her in the shape of a square, she's laying within the lines, she can see various consoles, devices and equipment around the walls of the room and next to her she sees the little girl.

The little girl is wearing blue pyjamas and is sitting crossed legged with her elbows on her legs and holding her head in her hands in the middle of another square of yellow lines on the floor, Alisana pushes herself up and walks over to her, "Hey." she whispers, as she gets to a yellow line she's prevented from going further by a force field.

The little girl sees Alisana and crawls towards her, "Hi." she says.

Alisana gets on her knees in front of the girl, "Hello." she says with a smile, "Are you okay?." she asks.

"Can you take me home now, I want to go home." says the little girl.

"I'll...I'll try." says Alisana, "I'm Alisana, what's your name?." she asks.

"Chloe." she replies.

"Do you know where we are or how we got here?." asks Alisana.

Chloe nods, "The monster brought us." she says.

Just then they hear footsteps coming from an open corridor at the end of the room, "Its coming back." says Chloe.

"Okay, sit back where you were. Shush don't let it know I'm awake okay, it'll be alright." says Alisana, and she lays back down pretending to be asleep and Chloe sits back where she was.

As the footsteps get louder and enter the room, Alisana opens her eyes only slightly enough to see, their captor is wearing a long brown cape cloak, the hood id long and hanging over it's face so she can't see what it looks like, the cloak is so long she can't even see its feet, the captor is about 5' 4" tall and appears humanoid because she can see its hands which are covered with white leathery gloves.

The captor walks over to the wall to the left of them and picks up a device, it then turns around and walks to the opposite side of the room and interacts briefly with a console, then the front part of the force field around Chloe flashes and disables, the captor then walks over to her but stops when Chloe shuffles away backwards making scared moan sounds.

When Alisana sees this she fully opens her eyes uses her arms to prop herself up, "What are you doing?, leave her alone." she says with concern.

Their captor looks at Alisana for a moment then looks at the device its holding and activates it, the captor then steps into the square and stands in front of Chloe and points the device at her, Chloe shuts her eyes and turns her head away in fear, the device emits a light which rapidly shines over Chloe like a scanner.

"Stop it!" shouts Alisana, getting to her feet and moving to the edge of her square, "Leave her alone." she shouts.

The device stops scanning and the captor turns and walks out back towards the console, after a brief interaction with the console the force shield around Chloe is re-enabled.

Alisana sees Chloe crying, "Chloe, honey it's okay." she says.

The captor replaces the device and starts to walk out of the room, "Hey." shouts Alisana, the captor stops and looks over its shoulder towards her.

Alisana looks at Chloe and then back to their captor, "Please...she's just a baby." she says.

The captor appears to empathise for a moment and walks back over to the console and pushes a button, the central force field separating them both disables and Alisana is able to go over to Chloe, "It's okay..it's okay." says Alisana, holding and comforting Chloe.

"I want my mummy." says Chloe, sobbing.

"What do you want from us?" asks Alisana.

The captor just stares at them.

"Who are you?." asks Alisana.

Suddenly a loud alarm sounds and the captor appears to look around in panic and then turn and run out of the room.

* * *

**South Pole**

(_Call signs will be used for pilot chatter_.)

Several F-302's were made combat ready and left McMurdo 10 minutes ago, they're now heading towards the shield generating device.

"McMurdo, we are 3 miles from target, awaiting final order to engage, over." says Trigga over the radio.

"Squadron leader you have permission to engage...good luck, over." replies McMurdo command.

"Roger that, over." says Trigga, "Okay boys get in to position." he says.

"Boys?" says Ditch.

"And girl. Sorry about that Ditch." says Trigga.

As the target comes in to view in the distance the F-302's take attack formation, lining up as they head towards it, they fly just a few meters above the surface, the thrust of their engines kicks up the snow behind them, "Everybody lock on target." says Trigga.

"Fox 3." says Trigga.

"Fox 3." says Homer.

"Fox 3." says Ditch.

Everyone fires missiles at the generator, after a few seconds they hit the generator in a massive explosion and fireball and the light beam goes out, the F-302's pull up, "Direct hit." says Trigga.

"Haha..yeah..got the sucka." says Homer.

Ditch circles around back to the generator for confirmation, as she watches the thick black smoke dissipate she see the generator still in tact, "Are you f*cking kidding me." she says, the device starts spinning again and the beam re-engages.

"Report?." says Trigga.

"Our missiles didn't do sh*t, target remains. All we did was melt the ice around it." says Ditch.

"Circle around, we'll hit it again." says Trigga.

As they circle around a line up taking attack formation once again they approach the target and get ready to fire, "Fox 3" they say and fire the missiles, suddenly the bottom of the generator cone rises about 10 feet revealing a dark cylinder beneath it, a green light pulses rapidly around it and then fires off 1000's of beams of green energy in every direction as it spins, it destroys the missiles.

"Break break break break break." shouts Trigga.

"Sh*t." says Ditch.

They break formation and head away from the generator, twisting and rolling their F-302's in the air avoiding the energy pulses being fired all around them, they try to quickly ascend but the generator appears to be tracking them and directing the pulses at them no matter which direction they take.


	6. Let it snow

The F-302's are now fully engaged in battle with the shield generation device, they're not doing too good though, the constant stream of energy fire making it near impossible to get close and even if they could there's only a slim chance of any missiles getting through, the initial attack squadron has managed to get clear of the devices range and are circling waiting for reinforcements to arrive.

Meanwhile SG-1 got to Carter's lab and successfully beamed themselves to the last known coordinates of the ship in the North Pole, they appear standing on the ice but as if the freezing wind and snow wasn't bad enough, temperatures are still dropping rapidly due to the shield around the planet, they have to act quickly.

"I thought you said we'd be transported to the ship?." asks O'Neill, having to shout in order to be heard over the howling wind.

"This is its last know position, it must still be in this area, it can't be too far away." says Carter.

"Should have worn my thermal underwear." says Mitchell.

"Indeed." says Teal'c.

"Alright, where too?." asks O'Neill.

Carter looks at her tablet computer, it's displaying sensor readings but nothing too clear due to weather interference, she looks around for a moment, "Uh...that way." she says, pointing East.

They set off walking East but its slow going because they're having to tread through thick snow on the ground, after about 20 minutes walking the readings on Carter's tablet get stronger so they know they're definitely heading the right way but just don't know how far or exactly what they're looking for, they hear a noise coming from behind so they turn and look, they see lights approaching from the distance.

"Get down." shouts O'Neill, he pushes Carter to the ground and everyone lays down in the snow.

A few seconds later a large ship flies over their heads heading East.

"What was that?." asks Daniel.

"It must be the object that came through our atmosphere, definitely a ship." says Carter.

"No kidding." says Mitchell, "Did anyone else hear bells?" he asks.

"Yeah." says Daniel.

"Sounded like bells." says Carter.

"Ouch." cries Daniel when Vala elbows him in the ribs, "What was that for?." he asks.

"You didn't have to hold my head in the snow." moans Vala.

O'Neill lifts his head and sees the ship moving in to the distance, "We have to move." he says.

"Uh..is it wise to keep going?." asks Daniel.

"Whatever that thing is, it's heading in the same direction we are...that's where Alisana is." says O'Neill.

"Right." says Daniel.

They pull themselves up and start walking again as fast as they possibly can.

* * *

The object approaches the location of the cloaked ship and hovers above it, the itself is in fact a cluster of ships, a large ship in the middle is black in colour, triangular shaped with a flat bottom, on top is a large black circular dome and spread all around the top and sides are spikes of various sizes, surrounding the large ship are 6 small cylinder shaped ships which are hovering around the larger one and each one has a different coloured light pulsing around it.

As the cluster hovers, the smaller ships continue moving around in a circle but fire streams of light down on to the cloaked ship, each stream is a different colour, every so often a strong pulse of light is fired down through each stream and hitting the cloaked ship below.

Inside the ship Alisana and Chloe are in their force field cage and can feel the ship shaking when each pulse hits it.

"What is that?." asks Chloe.

"I don't know." replies Alisana, "But it's okay, don't worry." she says, stroking Chloe's hair.

A few minutes later the pulses are clearly starting to cause damage as lights start flickering and panels on the walls start to blow and spark, Alisana sees a large panel on the ceiling directly above them get knocked loose, "Get down." she shouts as she uses her body to protect Chloe moments before a large portion of the ceiling comes crashing down.

As the loud crashing sound of the falling ceiling stops, Alisana looks up and sees debris hovering a few feet above her, luckily the force shield around them prevented the rubble from hitting them and it lays scattered on and around their square cage, the force shield is flickering from damage so they move to to opposite side out of the way of the rubble hovering precariously above them.

The part of the force shield in front of them is flickering less frequently than the others and appears to be turning on and off in random intervals, Alisana thinks they may be able to get through it, she slowly extends her arm to test it and when the section flickers she quickly extends her arm in and out, she managed to get her arm past the yellow line.

"Okay...we're going to get out of here, okay." says Alisana, she sits up on her knees and lifts up Chloe, "Hold on to me." she says, Chloe wraps her arms around her head and legs around her waist.

Alisana gently rocks back and forth watching the flickering of the force shield in front of her trying to get the timing just right, after watching it flicker several times she waits for it to flicker off and then leans as far backwards as she can, takes a deep breath and then quickly rolls forward cannonball style and successfully passes through it to the other side.

Alisana ends up on her back with Chloe on top of her, "Did we make it?." asks Chloe, lifting up her head.

"Yes we made it." says Alisana with a smile, the ship is still shaking from the pulses, "Come on." she says as they get to their feet.

Alisana holds Chloe's hand as they head for the open corridor at the end of the room, they stop at the corner to look around and see no one is there, "Okay come on." says Alisana and they make their way through the corridor, they come to another corner and head down it but as they get half way through it their captor comes around the other end.

They stop and gasp, Alisana quickly moves Chloe behind her, they stand and stare at each other for a few moments.

"Please, just let us go." says Alisana.

Suddenly the ship is shook violently and they look up and see the ceiling above them beginning to creek and buckle, their captor quickly runs towards them and as Alisana looks back down from the ceiling their captor pushes them out of the way just as it collapses and it falls on to their captor, Alisana and Chloe were pushed so hard they fall backwards to the floor.

* * *

That last pulse has caused serious damage to the ship and the cloak has deactivated making the ship visible from the outside, the pulses then stop and the streams of light from the smaller ships turn off.

SG-1 are just a few hundred meters away and they laid in the snow again when they approached and saw the lights from the cluster of ships, as the streams of light go out on the smaller ships they see the cluster move away and hover close to the ground about 100 meters in front of the now de-cloaked ship.

As the large triangular ship hovers above the ground, the smaller ships surrounding it break away and head South, the front part of the large ship then opens downwards forming a ramp.

"I'm going to take a wild guess here and say that thing there is the bad guy." says Mitchell.

Daniel looks at him strangely, "You're assuming of course that there's a good guy." he says.

"Sir, the sensor reading we've been following isn't coming from that ship...it's coming from that one over there in the ice." says Carter.

"Then that is where we need to be." says Teal'c.

"Yeah, lets try make our way around." says O'Neill.

"No, wait, wait...look." says Vala, pointing at the triangular ship.

As they look over to it they start to see figures emerge from inside of it walking down the ramp, they're about 4 feet tall, very dark black/blueish toned skin, they look humanoid in the sense that they have 2 arms and 2 legs and a head, but also appear to have tails, 30 or so come down the ramp and gather at the bottom, they're also carrying axe style weapons and what looks like small hand guns.

"Okay...what the heck are those things?." asks O'Neill.

"I have no idea." says Daniel.

"They're clearly some type of soldiers, I mean look at what they're carrying." says Vala.

"Sir, we need to move..there's only one place they're going to be heading." says Carter.

They all get to their feet again and duck down making their way around the mounds of snow towards the de-cloaked ship.


	7. Bad or Good

Inside the captors ship, the shaking and banging has stopped but the internal lights continue to flicker from heavy damage, laying in the now dusty corridor Alisana gets herself and Chloe to their feet, panels and electrical circuits are continuing to occasionally pop and spark on the walls around them and broken cables hang down from where the ceiling collapsed.

They're both covered in dust and a few minor cuts and scrapes, "Are you okay." asks Alisana, dusting off Chloe.

Chloe nods, "Yup." she says.

Alisana looks over to a pile of rubble and can see part of the cloak and hand of their captor sticking out from underneath a large metal beam, "Wait here I'll be right back, don't move." she says and then slowly walks towards the rubble.

As she gets closer she starts to see over the beam and can see their captor laying on the floor behind it still covered with the cloak with lots of broken metal and cables on top if it, Alisana crouches down by the beam and cautiously reaches out her arm towards the hood of the cloak, she grabs the rim of it with her fingers and begins slowly lifting it up, she grabs the other side with her other hand and with her hands shaking she lifts it up and then quickly throws it off their captors head then she dashes backwards a few feet.

"Alisana." says Chloe, still standing in the corridor and sounding a bit worried.

"It's okay, don't worry..I'm still here." replies Alisana.

She steps back towards the rubble and looks at their captor, Alisana's expression turns to one of surprise, then it's eyes open and realising it's underneath the rubble it begins pushing it out of the way, Alisana rushes back to Chloe as their captor stands up in front of them and it's cloak falls to the ground.

Their captor is in fact a girl, a very beautiful girl, about 5'4" tall, dressed in an all-in-one shiny white leathery suit, the suit has silver lines down the sleeves and legs and around the waist and neck line, wearing white boots and gloves, her hair is a bright yellow gold colour and flows all the way back down to her knees, she has small pointed ears peaking out of the side of her hair, big emerald green eyes and her face is perfectly symmetrical and her skin is smooth wrinkle and blemish free.

Chloe looks up at Alisana, "What happened to the monster?." she asks.

"I don't know." replies Alisana, holding Chloe very tightly.

Their captor looks slightly ashamed, "I am not a monster." she says, then starts to walk towards them.

Alisana moves herself and Chloe back, "Don't come any closer." she says.

"You don't have to be afraid, I will not harm either of you." says the captor.

"Then why did you take us?...you locked us up in those cages." says Alisana.

"That was for your safety." says the captor, she looks at Chloe, "I did not mean to frighten you little one. My name is Llula." she says.

Alisana can tell the Llula is genuine in what she says but still doesn't understand, "What do you want with us?." she asks.

"The girl is important, she must be protected." says Llula.

"And me?." asks Alisana.

"I saw you trying to take her from my ship, I couldn't allow you to do that. In order to keep her safe she must remain with me." says Llula.

Alisana was about to say something but stops when the muffled sound of P90 gun fire is heard from outside.

* * *

Outside of the ship SG-1 were covertly making their way behind mounds of snow out of sight of the large triangular ship and the small beings that exited from it, they made it close to the ship but were then spotted by the approaching beings who have now opened fire on them.

"Get behind there." shouts O'Neill, running in a line with the others towards the side of the ship while laying down cover fire.

The small beings are using their guns which are firing tiny laser blasts, they look quite menacing as then run and jump through the snow towards the team, laser blasts constantly hit the snow and the hull of the ship leaving scorch marks, luckily for SG-1 their P90 fire appears to be cutting them down pretty well.

Mitchell is kneeling in the snow a few feet from the side of the ship when Teal'c suddenly jumps on him, pushing him down to the ground, he sees an axe type weapon whistle past spinning through the air.

"Thanks Teal'c." says Mitchell, then scramble to their feet and retreat back to the side of the ship.

O'Neill removes a mag from his P90 and grabs another one from his vest pocket, "My last mag." he shouts, clipping it in to place, then he swings around and leans out opening fire.

Inside the ship Alisana is growing concerned, "What's happening out there?." she asks.

"The Avari are attacking." says Llula.

"The what?...look I know that sound, that'll be my friends out there, you have to let them in." says Alisana.

Llula shakes her head looking confused and conflicted.

Alisana walks closer to her, "Listen, if you really want to protect her then my friends can help you. It sounds pretty bad out there...if you don't let them in they're going to die. Please." she says.

"...Okay" says Llula, and she turns and runs down the corridor to the ships hanger bay.

"Are we going home now?." asks Chloe.

"Soon." says Alisana, picking up Chloe and following Llula down the corridor.

* * *

The little beings outside have split up and some have made it around the ship coming at SG-1 from behind, Vala and Carter are firing at them as they come around, O'Neill is firing around the front and runs out of ammo, he lifts and holds his gun in front of his face when a laser blast is fired directly at him, it hits his gun and knocks him back behind the ship.

"Terrific." says O'Neill, looking at the side of his P90 that has been melted from the laser hit and throwing it in to the snow, he pulls out his side-arm when he sees one of the beings about to jump down from the top of the ship directly above him and shoots it.

The ship vibrates briefly and they hear the sound of screeching metal, Daniel is at the front when he sees the large door of the ship sliding down, "It's opening up." he shouts

Mitchell stays knelt down and firing on the beings, Teal'c stands at the side with his arm extended towards the opening door and holding his Zat gun, O'Neill kneels beside him aiming his side-arm, as the door fully opens they see Llula standing by a switch and waving them to come inside, O'Neill and Teal'c share a brief puzzled look at each other.

"Get inside..come on move." says O'Neill.

Vala and Carter come around and run inside, followed by the others, Llula pushes the switch to close the door as they all open fire on the beings preventing them from following them inside.

* * *

As the door closes they look over to Llula with wonder, "Alright, who are you?" asks O'Neill walking over and pointing his gun at her, he turns his head when he hears Alisana running down the corridor, "Jack." she shouts.

"Alisana thank God, are you alright?." asks O'Neill.

"Yes, I'm fine." replies Alisana, "Don't hurt her, she...she's okay." she says.

Carter goes over and hugs her with one arm, "We were so worried about you." she says.

O'Neill looks at Alisana holding Chloe, "What exactly have you been doing in here?." he asks.

"What?...Oh...this is Chloe." says Alisana and she puts her down.

They hear banging and weapons fire on the large hanger door.

"The door won't hold them for long." says Llula.

"This is a ship right, can't you fly us out of here?." asks Carter.

"It will not fly, the engines were damaged beyond repair many years ago." says Llula.

"What about shields, do you have those?." asks Carter.

"The shields operate on the same systems as the cloak, they were damaged in the initial attack." says Llula.

"Well maybe we can repair them...can you show me where the systems are." says Carter.

Llula begins walking, "Yes, this way." she says.

Carter, Vala, Alisana and Chloe follow Llula out of the hanger bay and the guys hang back for a moment and line up watching them leave.

"Wow. She's err..." says Mitchell.

"Yeah." replies O'Neill.

"I mean really..." says Mitchell.

"Yeah." replies O'Neill.

"Indeed." says Teal'c.

They're all clearly staring at Llula's beauty as she leaves the room, they remain standing there for a moment.

"Maybe we should.." says Daniel.

"Yeah." says O'Neill, and they all start walking following the others out of the room.

With the small beings outside attacking the hanger bay door it's only a matter of time before they break through it so they need to try and get the ships shields operating to hold them back, they also need to find out what is going on and why they're attacking Llula's ship, perhaps more importantly, if the small beings are in fact soldiers, then who is their commander.


	8. The Grinch

With Carter's help, Llula managed to repair the systems and get the shields online, but the ships power core is leaking energy and the shield will not be able to remain online for too much longer, however it has managed to buy them some time so they can rest and come up with a plan to get out of there.

Everyone is in the ships control room and sitting against the walls, having a rest and checking their supplies.

"That should hold them back for a couple of hours." says Carter.

Alisana is sitting against the wall and Chloe is laying next to her with her head on Alisana's leg sleeping, O'Neill walks over to her and slides down the wall to a seated position next to her.

"How's she doing?." he asks.

"She's fine, tired from everything that's been going on." says Alisana, briefly glancing at O'Neill.

"About what I said back at the SGC." says O'Neill, "I didn't mean it...you know that, right?." he says.

"I know." replies Alisana.

"I just want you to know that you do have friends, and a family...we're your family. I promise when we get back I'm going to make things better for you." says O'Neill.

"Does that mean I can have my own place?." asks Alisana.

O'Neill smiles, "We'll see." he says and gives her a shoulder hug.

Llula comes over with a bowl style container full green liquid, "It is nourishment." she says as she kneels in from of them.

"Thank you." says Alisana, taking the bowl.

"So what's your story?." asks O'Neill, "What exactly is going on here." he asks.

"It is difficult to explain." says Llula.

"Try." says O'Neill.

* * *

**Llula explains...**

"A few thousand years ago our planet was visited by a member of a very advanced race, he told us that his race was dying and he was searching for a way to save them and believed he had found it within us.

As we are a peaceful and caring people our queen Boda agreed to help him, she was taken to his ship where they began their research, they spent many months inside of his ship and when they finally returned they had a young girl with them, our queen announced that she was their daughter and the saviour of his race.

Everyone rejoiced in celebration of their accomplishment, but it was not to last. By the end of the first day, the young girl became violently ill and within hours her appearance began to change and her body became deformed, Loki concluded that the..."

"Wait...wait a second...did you say, Loki?" says Daniel.

"That was the visitors name." replies Llula.

"He's the Asgard that cloned you, Jack." says Daniel.

"Yes Daniel I remember...trying to forget it." says O'Neill.

"Will you shut up and let the girl finish her story." says Vala, "Continue Llula." she adds.

"Loki came to the conclusion that her cells were breaking down due to serious incompatibilities between our two races, incompatibilities that didn't became evident until it was obviously too late.

Loki search for a way to help her but could not do anything to reverse her condition, when her condition stabilised she emerged from the ship badly deformed and disfigured, our people were happy that she had survived and we did not treat her any differently, she was still the daughter of our queen.

However, she did not see it that way, she believed she was grotesque and ugly and because our people were beautiful in appearance having to look at us every day drove her mad, she believed she could heal herself despite Loki's insistence that it was impossible and one night she stole components from Loki's ship and then fled our land in search of a way to make herself beautiful again.

It was many months before we saw her again, but when she returned it was very clear that she had failed to heal herself, she walked through our city holding a device she had constructed, upon releasing the energy from within the device she began transforming our people, she believed if she could not make herself beautiful then none of us deserved to be beautiful.

Our people began turning in to the small dark creatures you encountered outside, but it was not just physical beauty that was taken, beauty was also found within the soul which she turned dark and they became as mad as she was.

As she continued to turn our people, our land turned cold and all the trees, plants and animals began to die and soon our world became a frozen baron wasteland, when finished with our world her attentions turned to others and she intended to venture out among the stars and remove all that was beautiful from the galaxy.

We couldn't allow her to do this, so those of us in hiding attempted unsuccessfully to destroy the device, with no other options available we managed to take the device from her and flee our planet, we spread out in all directions as we knew she would pursue us, she has been hunting us ever since.

If she ever gets her hands on the Nidhug, she will plunge the galaxy in to darkness."

* * *

"Hel." says Daniel, "That's who you're talking about right?." he asks.

"Hela, yes." replies Llula.

"Daniel?." says O'Neill, looking at him with curiosity.

"Err...Hel, in Norse mythology she's the daughter of Loki and Angrboda, she was part beautiful and part deformed, sort of half alive and half dead, but from what we know about Loki I'm guessing she's not the product of actual breeding, but a clone. It makes sense, I mean we know Loki's clones didn't always turn out the way he wanted and the illness and deformation Llula described was probably a result of bad genetic manipulation." says Daniel.

"Your planet, was it called Niflheim?." asks Daniel.

"Yes." replies Llula.

"Niflheim is described as the world of the dead where Hel lived. Nidhug was a beast, err dragon that would suck the blood from the dead and allow Hel to make them a part of her army of the dead." explains Daniel.

"So she's after this Nidhug thing right...where is it now?." asks O'Neill

"It is here." says Llula.

O'Neill gets to his feet, "Great, lets break out some C4 and destroy the thing." he says.

"That is not possible." says Llula.

"Why not?." asks O'Neill.

"The Nidhug is a rare form of energy that Hel contained within the device in order to control it, several years ago while I was away from my ship the device lost power and the energy escaped containment, it descended in to the ocean below and I attempted to retrieve it but I was too late." says Llula.

"What do you mean, it's gone?." asks Carter.

"The Nidhug is a life energy, it requires a living host in which to exist, without the containment device it headed for the closest life force it could find. One of your ocean dwelling vessels was in the area at the time and it entered the body of one of it's crew members." says Llula.

"Ocean dwelling...you mean a submarine?." asks O'Neill, "Are you telling me that evil Nidhug thing is inside one of our people?." asks O'Neill, angry and concerned.

"In a sense. The Nidhug is not evil nor is it good, it is simply life energy and it depends who is in control of that energy that determines if it is used for good or evil." replies Llula.

The ocean dwelling vessel Llula is talking about is in fact the USS Charlotte that was in the North Pole in 2005, the mysterious object they encountered was the Nidhug energy and it entered the body of one of its crew members.

When the USS Charlotte docked in Norfolk, Virginia, the crew member in question went home to his wife and son, 9 months later they had a child, the Nidhug had passed from him to their new child, a baby girl, a girl they called Chloe.

* * *

**A/N Sorry for the late updates I've been quite busy with friends and family coming over for Christmas - I will continue to update as quickly as I can :)**


	9. Nightmare before Christmas

Llula is in fact an Elf and part of a race known as the Avari, they're a beautiful race in every sense of the word but their world was shattered by the arrival of the rogue Asgard Loki who convinced their queen to help him find a way to save his race who were dying from deterioration of their genes due to generations of cloning.

Together they produced a clone, a female they named Hela, the clone emerged beautiful but complications caused by the genetic manipulation soon caused her cells to break down and her appearance became deformed and she believed herself to be ugly and grotesque, unable to make herself beautiful again she eventually went mad and using a rare form of energy known as the Nidhug, she transformed the beautiful Avari race in to small creatures who were as ugly and mad as she was.

These creatures eventually became known as the Dark Elves in Norse Mythology, while the surviving Avari fleeing the transformation became known as the Light Elves, different in their nature but still members of the same race.

The light elves fled their home world taking the power of the Nidhug with them, they spread out through the galaxy with Hela in pursuit, she managed to hunt most of them down in search of the Nidhug but none of them had it, Llula was the one entrusted with the Nidhug and now Hela has tracked her down, if she gets hold of it she will use it to destroy all that is beautiful in the galaxy.

Unfortunately the Nidhug is no longer in the form of energy, it has combined with the body of a little girl, Hela will not think twice about killing her to release the energy, Earths large population would make a great army so Hela has thrown up a large shield surrounding the planet, preventing anyone from entering or leaving and gradually turning the planet to be as cold as the baron waste lands of Niflheim.

Now Llula and SG-1 must protect Chloe and find a way of stopping Hela once and for all, the shields on Llula's ship have failed and the Avari are continuing their assault on the hanger doors, the door is beginning to buckle and bend so it's only a matter of minutes before they get in to the ship.

"We need to move. Is there anywhere on the ship that's defensible?." asks O'Neill.

"The lab has only one way in and out." says Llula.

"Okay then that's where we're heading, lets go." says O'Neill.

Teal'c gently picks up Chloe and everyone runs down the corridor back to the room where Alisana and Chloe were held.

* * *

**In the South Pole**

The F-302's sent from McMurdo base have been flying around in circles a safe distance away from the shield generator device that has kicked in to self defence mode, a cylinder at the base of the device is spinning at an incredible speed firing 1000s of laser shots a second in every direction and angle possible, preventing the F-302's from getting close to it.

The six smaller ships that were surrounding Hela's ship in the North split away and headed South, they have now made it to the North Pole and engaged the F-302's in aerial combat, two F-302's have already been shot down, the little ships are just too fast and more manoeuvrable in the air, reinforcements have been called in from McMurdo and 8 more F-302's have since been deployed, the initial squadron are doing all they can while they await their arrival.

"They're on me." shouts Ditch over radio.

Ditch is being targeted by two of the little ships and they're right on her tail, trying to avoid their laser fire she flies down and glides a few feet above and along the icy surface, "Major, a little help here." she shouts.

"Bring em up." says Trigga.

"What?!." asks Ditch.

"Just do it..PULL UP NOW!" says Trigga.

Trigga is twisting and turning through the air with one of the little ships on his tail, he can see Ditch on the surface below and as she pulls up he hard banks around, as they get close to each other Trigga fires off his last missile at the lead ship and successfully destroys it, as he flies through the debris and smoke, the ship that was following him and the one following Ditch crash in to each other and take each other out.

"Haha..ha." shouts Trigga, "Woohw!" he shouts.

Ditch laughs, "You're one crazy son of a b*tch do you know that." she says in relief.

"I wouldn't celebrate yet." says Homer.

The remaining 4 ships are approaching from all sides attempting to box them in, their combined fire power is just too much and incredibly difficult to avoid, Trigga's engines are hit, "I'm hit..I'm hit." he shouts as his F-302 rapidly descends and crashes in to the surface in a fire ball.

"Trigga." shouts Ditch in horror, "Where's his chute, you see his chute?" she asks.

"No. No chute." says Homer, sounding very sad.

* * *

In Llula's ship, the Avari have made it through the bay door and are heading through the corridors of the ship, hundreds more are on their way from Hela's ship, SG-1 have made it to the lab and are tipping over tables and piling up boxes to give them as much cover as possible.

"There is only one way out of here O'Neill." says Teal'c.

"Yeah. But there's only one way in too, we know where they're coming from, all we have to do is hold them back." replies O'Neill.

Llula has given Carter access to a communications terminal, she's attempting to use it to call for reinforcements.

"Okay, this should protect you. Stay behind here with Alisana okay, put your hands over your ears like this because its going to get very noisy." says Vala, propping up metal tables around Alisana and Chloe sitting in the corner of the room, "Good girl." she says.

"Thanks Vala." says Alisana.

Vala nods and joins the others behind the barricade of tables and boxes.

O'Neill looks at Llula in a sympathetic manner, "You're okay with this right?, you know we're going to have to shoot them. With them being your people and all..." he says.

"Yes. It is too late for them, they can not be returned to their previous form." says Llula.

"But they're still your people." says Daniel.

"I believe in my heart that they would rather be dead than live their lives as beasts and doing such evil acts." replies Llula.

Shadows are seen on the walls and growling sounds are heard coming down the corridor.

"Here they come." says Mitchell.

As the Avari begin to gather by the door and slowly walk in and look around, SG-1 wait for a few moments ducked behind the barricade and wait for a few to enter, "Now!" shouts Mitchell.

They all rush up and open fire from above and around the barricade and an exchange of fire power begins between them, as the first few Avari are taken down, the others start rushing in to the room, laser blasts hitting the barricade and surrounding walls leaving scorch marks, bullets hitting the Avari and leaving holes in the walls around the door and floor.

Mitchell and Daniel duck back down to reload, picking up a mag from the supply lined up on the floor behind them but they don't have many, Teal'c stands up firing his Zat several times before ducking back down as Daniel and Mitchell load up and rejoin the fire fight.

As many more Avari pile in to the room making it hard for SG-1 to pick them all off, Llula extends her arms and swords suddenly emerge from under her wrists, she rolls out from behind the barricade and like a samurai she attacks the Avari that have made it passed the onslaught of P90 and Zat fire.

O'Neill watches in amazement as she takes them down, "Nice." he says, then continues firing.

They hear a very loud sound like a horn echo through the corridor, then suddenly the Avari stop attacking and run back out of the room, everyone stands up and looks over the barricade.

"Where are they going?." asks Mitchell.

O'Neill shrugs his shoulders, "Lunch?." he says jokingly.

"Are they gone?." asks Daniel, talking to Teal'c who went over to the door to check.

"They are indeed." says Teal'c.

They turn and look at Llula when they hear the dinging sound of her swords retreating back in to her wrists, "It is most likely a retreat, they will return in greater numbers." she says.

* * *

Carter has been on the communications the whole time and trying to contact anyone but has been unsuccessful, the shield and weapons fire from the generator and the bad weather is causing too much interference for land based communication, she had the idea of contacting the Daedalus who's superior communications array would be able to pick up her signal and break through the interference and call in reinforcements.

"Sir, we got the Daedalus." shouts Carter, "Colonel we need your help, can you get a message to the SGC?." she asks.

"Yes, what's the message?." replies Caldwell.

"Just tell them to send reinforcements, as many people as they can, we're pinned down out here." says Carter.

"Pinned down...by who?." asks Caldwell.

"Just send the message." replies Carter.

"Our sensors put you in the North Pole, it's going to take them hours to reach your position." says Caldwell.

"They can use the Asgard beam at the SGC." says Carter.

"I'm afraid that's not possible." says Caldwell.

"What, why?." asks Carter.

"They already tried that, the shield has gotten too thick, we can only just manage to stay in radio communication but the interference is preventing transport, we even tried beaming down from the Daedalus without success. The shield dropped briefly a short time ago but other than that it just seems to be getting stronger." says Caldwell.

"Wait..did you say the shield dropped...when was that?." asks Carter.

"During the initial attack from the F-302's, but it was only brief, less than a second." replies Caldwell.

Carter thinks for a moment then has an idea, "Well that's it, that's how we destroy it." she says.

"What?." asks Caldwell.

"You said it dropped during the initial attack, which means it must have been disrupted when they hit it. If they can hit it again and if timed precisely right, you can use the Asgard beam and destroy it from space." says Carter.

"Just how do we do that?." asks Caldwell.

"You'll need to contact McMurdo and coordinate with their fighters, just work something out." says Carter.

Carter goes over to the others, "Reinforcements could take a while Sir, but we have a plan to take out the shield around the planet." she says.

"We can't hold them off forever." says O'Neill.

"I know Sir, we're just going to have to …..TEAL'C!" says Carter, she shouts in horror when she glances over to the door.

As Teal'c turns around he's grabbed by the neck and lifted off the ground, then thrown quickly backwards through the air he crashes in to the barricade sending boxes falling and Daniel and Mitchell falling backwards as they try to catch him.

Standing at the door is Hela, 6 foot tall, wearing a torn ragged black suit, grey and blue patchy skin, long white hair with lots of bald patch areas, scars and seeping wounds all over her body, one eye human sized while the other is of Asgard appearance, part of the flesh on her cheek is missing you can see the bone behind it, her breathing sounds like she has a bad chest cold, she is seriously grotesque in appearance.


	10. Spirit

More F-302's have been deployed from McMurdo to engage the little ships and working with the Daedalus in orbit above Earth they have come up with a plan to destroy the shield generator, precise timing will be needed as well as a clear shot at the device, but with it's defences this could be easier said than done.

As the other F-302's join the fight and the engagement begins, the skies above Antarctica light up with gun fire and multicoloured laser beams like twinkling Christmas lights, an extraordinary aerial battle is under way around the generator below.

Two war submarines were also deployed to the area and are just a few miles out, they have begun firing sea to air missiles at the generator.

"I need some help here, I'm out of missiles and this suckers not giving up." says Pacman over the radio.

The pilots are being chased all over by the little ships and having to avoid all the surface and air lasers.

Ditch comes in behind Pacman and the little ship.

"Come on" shouts Pacman.

"Fox 3" says Ditch, taking the shot.

As the missile approaches the ship it changes direction and darts out of the way, the missile screeches past and crashes in to the sea.

"Damn these things are fast." says Ditch.

* * *

On Llula's ship

Hela has entered the lab and violently thrown Teal'c across the room, sending the barricade tumbling to the ground, she slowly makes her further in to the room, Mitchell gets to his feet and pulls his sidearm firing off a few shots in to Hela's chest, they don't appear to affect her at all.

Hela just casually walks over to Mitchell and punches him in the stomach sending him backwards in to the wall.

Daniel, Vala, O'Neill and Carter open fire on her with their P90's from the back of the room as she approaches, as the bullets hit her chunks of her flesh get ripped off but she still seems unaffected, as she gets close to them Teal'c laying on the floor behind her lifts his head off the floor and repeatedly shoots her in the back with his Zat, this appears to have a slowing affect on her.

She turns around and walks over to Teal'c, she stands on his arm which is carrying the Zat pinning it to the floor, "Arrgh" cries Teal'c, Hela kneels and punches Teal'c so hard it knocks him unconscious, she then pulls the Zat from his hand and stands turning back to the others.

Llula extends her swords and runs towards Hela from behind, she leaps in to the air with her arms and swords extended in front of her, as she comes down she pierces Hela in the back with the swords, Hela lets out a painful growling sound and falls kneeling to the floor with Llula on her back.

As Hela's blood drips down the swords, like acid it starts melting the blades, she reaches around her back and grabs Llula's hair pulling her off her back as the blades snap, Hela gets to her feet and as the blades dissolve away she wraps Llula's hair around her neck and body like a rope tying her up and pulls her closer.

"I will deal with you..later." says Hela, she quickly turns and throws Llula out in to the corridor.

Daniel, Vala, O'Neill and Carter try to dart out of the way when Hela turns back around with the Zat and opens fire on them, they don't make it in time and Hela shoots them all, they now lay unconscious on the floor.

* * *

Back in the South Pole

The F-302's have managed to take out another ship but they lost two of their own in the process, as they only have a few missiles left and no time to return to base to re-arm, they've been ordered to attack the generator.

The 8 remaining F-302's turn around and head right for it, it's impossible to fly straight for it as they have to twist turn and dodge the immense fire power coming from it, the attack subs release every missile they have.

The remaining little ships approach from behind, two of the F-302's break off and attempt to deal with them while the others continue heading for the generator.

"Okay this is as close as we're going to get." says Homer.

"Alright, FIRE all you've got." orders Pacman.

As upwards of 30 missiles from the subs and F-302's screech through the air towards the device, most are shot and destroyed within a few meters of the target, the others explode on the surface around the device and none of them make it through.

"Damn it...break off." says Pacman.

Homer is badly hit in the left wing, "I'm hit, I'm hit." he shouts.

"Homer, pull off." says Ditch.

"I've lost all control, it's not happening." replies Homer.

"Then bail." says Ditch, "Come on Homer, bail." she shouts.

Suddenly the little ships turn and head for the device like they know something is about to happen.

Homer looks a picture of his girlfriend he has on his dash, "Tell Maria I love her." he says.

"Homer what are you doing?." asks Ditch.

"We have to take this thing out." says Homer.

"No...no Homer, no." says Ditch.

As the little ships approach from behind and open fire on Homer's F-302, he grabs the stick and uses all his strength to push it forward, he's heading directly for the device, it's a kamikaze run, the laser fire hits and gradually rips apart it's wings, "Waaarrggh." screams Homer as he crashes his F-302 in to the base of the generator.

On board the Daedalus which is in orbit positioned above Antarctica, they have been monitoring the fight below, as Homer's F-302 crashes in to the generator in a big fireball, it interrupts the shield for a brief moment.

"Sir, the shield is fluctuating." says Sgt Marks at the weapons control on the bridge.

Caldwell stands up and walks to the window, "Fire." he orders.

The Asgard beam is fired directly down, it passes through the shield and hits the top of the generator burrowing right through it's core, the shield around Earth flashes and disappears like a blast wave around the planet.

"The shield is down, but sensors indicate there's still an energy build up in the device." says Sgt Marks.

"Finish it off Sgt." says Caldwell, walking back and sitting in his chair.

The Daedalus fires several missiles, they strike the device and surrounding area and it explodes like a small nuke on the surface.

* * *

Back on Llula's ship, SG-1 lay unconscious on the floor of the lab after being shot with a Zat, Hela throws the Zat gun on the floor then turns her head to the corner of the room looking at a stack of tables.

Alisana and Chloe are hunched up in the corner hugging each other tightly, "Sshh..sshh." whispers Alisana looking slightly upwards over the tables in to the flashing lights, dust and smoke that fills the room.

"Is it over?." asks Chloe.

"I don't know." replies Alisana, she looks through a gap between the tables but can't see any movement.

Alisana shuffles back tightly against the wall when Hela suddenly looks over the top of the tables, she grabs the tables and pushes them aside, Alisana stands with Chloe behind her against the wall.

"The Nidhug." says Hela, looking at Chloe.

"You stay away from her." says Alisana.

Hela looks at Alisana with hatred and places her face close to her, Alisana turns her head away from the smell, "You will soon be a part of my army, human." she says, then she grabs her arm and pulls her away and throws her across the floor, "Out of my way." she shouts.

"Alisana." shouts Chloe, holding our her arm, then cowers in the corner from fear.

Hela reaches down and picks her up, she laughs when Chloe struggles and hits her trying to get away, "Don't worry child, this will be painless." she says, then she feels a tap on her shoulder and turns around, as she does she's hit extremely hard in the head.

O'Neill is regaining consciousness and sees Hela holding Chloe, as she's taken by surprise and hit in the face she lets go of Chloe and O'Neill catches her in his arms as she falls.

It was Alisana who hit her, she walks in front of Hela, "I'm not human...b*tch." she says, then she swings around and kicks Hela sending her flying across the room, when she eventually gets up she swiftly walks back over to Alisana with her bony hand held out and looking extremely angry.

When her arm gets within inches of Alisana's neck she suddenly stops, she looks around in confusion.

"Chloe, wait." says O'Neill, as she stands and walks over to Alisana and holds her hand.

"That's not possible." says Hela, "The Nidhug is mine." she says.

A glow like an aura starts surrounding Chloe, "You're a bad lady." she says.

The Nidhug energy within Chloe has activated, fuelled by the goodness and purity of Chloe's heart, it's beginning to remove all the evil it created, particles of light emerge from within Hela's body, "No..No." she moans.

Hela and all the Avari turn in to light energy and fade away before their eyes.


	11. Merry Christmas

The shield generator in the South Pole has been successfully destroyed by the Daedalus, it took some doing and good people were lost in the battle but after hours of fighting what they believed was a losing battle, it's finally over, the smaller ships became inert and simply lost power and fell crashing to the surface.

Hela, the grotesque clone created by Loki and Boda and her army of Dark Elves have been defeated, although SG-1 and Llula played a big part in her eventual defeat, the victory was mainly due to the actions of a seven year old girl, who's purity, goodness and unbreakable spirit dealt the final blow that sent Hela and her army away for good.

SG-1 feeling weak and tired from the fight start waking up and getting to their feet in the lab, Daniel has untied Llula and everyone gathers in the middle of the room.

Chloe lets go of Alisana's hand and walks over to Llula as she comes over, "Did you see what I did?." she says.

"Yes little one." replies Llula with a smile.

"It wants you to have it." says Chloe, reaching out and grabbing Llula's hand.

"What?." asks Llula.

"The Nidhug, it's speaking to me. It says it wants to be with you." replies Chloe.

As the aura surround Chloe once again, it travels between their held hands and flows in to Llula, "See." says Chloe smiling, "It will help you return home." she says.

Llula kneels down and hugs Chloe, "Thank you." she says.

SG-1 gather up their belongings and head back through the corridor to the hanger bay, Llula is powering up her ship ready to return home, hoping she can use the Nidhug to restore her world to its previous glory and search for any other survivors.

"I'm sorry I stunned you." says Llula, hugging Alisana.

Alisana laughs, "It's alright." she says, "You were protecting us, your methods leave a little to be desired, but you're a good person." she adds.

"One last hug?." asks Llula, looking at Chloe, she goes in for a really big hug.

"Bye." says Chloe.

Llula isn't sure why, but everyone else gives her a little hug as well.

"I hope you find your people." says O'Neill.

She gets in her ship and every stands back as the engines kick in, "Bye, good luck." they all shout as the ship leaves the hanger, they all move and stand looking out as she flies away, suddenly Chloe screams.

"What, what is it?." asks O'Neill in a panic.

Chloe holds up O'Neills hand and points to his watch, "It's Christmas, I have to get home." she says.

Everybody laughs with amusement.

* * *

A memorial service will be held for the pilots in the next few days, giving everyone a chance to say goodbye and thank you to the fallen heroes, one in particular Homer who gave his life to save his fellow pilots, they will never be forgotten.

Chloe was returned to her parents, they have been through hell the last 24 hours not knowing what had become of their little girl, unable to come up with a story about where she has been and what happened to her they brought her parents to the SGC, with her father being part of the Navy the pentagon decided to tell them the truth about what happened, it was difficult for them to accept at first but they eventually did but didn't really care, they were just happy to have their little girl back safe and sound.

Hela's ship, the little ships, Llula's big ship and the remains of the shield generator have been beamed via the Daedalus to the newly rebuilt Area 51 base where they will be examined by scientists in the next few days.

SG-1 were looked over by the medical team and apart from a few bruises and small fractures, they were given the all clear, none of them will have to remain in the infirmary.

With it being Christmas day O'Neill asked them, including Chloe and her family if they would like to join him at his cabin for Christmas and they agreed, they secretly took food from the mess hall and boxes of decorations Walter had removed from the walls of the SGC and they headed for Carter's lab where they used the Asgard module to transport to O'Neill's cabin.

* * *

The party at the cabin is in full swing, a table full of food, decorations all around, festive music playing in the background and everyone is enjoying themselves, dancing eating and drinking eggnog.

Daniel spits in his glass, "Oh my God, that's...that is vile." he moans, not liking the eggnog.

"What?." asks O'Neill.

"What's in this?." asks Daniel, fighting back the urge to puke.

"Eggs...and nog." says O'Neill, "I bought it from the store, what's wrong with it?." he asks.

"It's discussing." moans Daniel.

"Indeed." says Teal'c, looking disappointedly in to his glass.

O'Neill opens the fridge, "Then don't drink it, here have a beer." he says passing them beers from the fridge.

Vala, Alisana, Chloe and Tommy are dancing in the main room to the music, dressed in tinsel and having a great time, Mitchell is sat with Chloe's parents, drinking a beer and laughing and giggling while they watch them make a fool of themselves.

"You've got some great kids there." says Mitchell.

"Thank you." says Stephanie.

"Yeah, they're the best." says James.

O'Neill and Carter are standing by the door when Alisana comes over, "Hey." she says, a little out of breath from the dancing, "Come on and dance with us." she says.

"I'm not much of a dancer." says Carter.

"I'm good right here." says O'Neill.

"Suit yourselves." says Alisana, "There is just one thing though." she says.

"What's that?." asks O'Neill.

Alisana smiles and points upwards, as they look up they see mistletoe is hanging above their heads, "It's tradition, you have too." she says, then steps back biting her lip with excitement.

Carter and O'Neill look at each other blushing slightly in an awkward manner.

Alisana nudges them with impatience, "Go on." she says.

O'Neill leans in and kisses Carter very quickly on the lips.

"Wow...that was...pathetic." says Alisana.

"Get out of here." says O'Neill, jokingly as he pushes her back on to the dance floor.

They remain standing there still looking awkward and occasionally glancing and grinning at each other, "Oh to hell with it." says O'Neill as he pulls Carter towards him and kisses her, it's not just a quick kiss nor a friendly kiss, but clearly a long passionate kiss, they relax and really get in to it.

When they stop kissing the continue holding each other and just gaze in to each others eyes, Alisana jumps in front of them, "Aawwww." she sounds, "See, wasn't that nice." she says.

O'Neill and Carter laugh lightly then look around and see everyone staring and grinning at them, no one seems to care that they kissed they knew it would happen eventually, they've been fighting their true feelings for far too long and have finally given in, to hell with the consequences.

A while later and everyone has been opening their presents, Daniel got an electronic piggy bank from Vala, it has a slot at the top in which to place money and a safe door at the front to open it, she's keeping the combination, Teal'c got a big red Christmas jumper with a reindeer on it.

O'Neill reaches in to his pocket and hands Alisana a small wrapped box, "Here you go." he says.

"What's this?." asks Alisana.

"Open it and find out." says O'Neill.

Alisana rips off the paper and opens the box, she reaches in to it and pulls out a key on a small chain, "What's this for?" she asks.

"It's a key to the cabin, if you want, I would like you to come and live with me." says O'Neill, "I know it's not your own place, but it's a start." he says.

Alisana jumps up with joy and hugs him, "Thank you." she shouts with excitement.

Then Chloe opens the cabin door and comes running in pushing a pink pram with yellow flowers on it, "Santa got me my present, look Mummy." she shouts.

"Woow, that's beautiful honey." says Stephanie.

Vala goes over to Alisana, "I thought they were suppose to wait until later?." she says.

"They were." says Alisana, going in to the kitchen and picking up a radio off the table.

Before they left the SGC, Vala and Alisana came up with an idea for a special surprise for Chloe, they managed to get their hands on a present she wanted and have asked the Daedalus to beam it down as a surprise for her later.

"Daedalus, come in please." says Alisana.

"This is the Daedalus." replies Caldwell.

"Why did you beam the pram down so early, you were meant to wait for our order." asks Alisana.

Caldwell looks at Sgt Marks who then both look at the front of the bridge looking at the pink pram still standing there, "Err, we haven't beamed it down yet." says Caldwell.

Alisana looks confused, "Well then where did this come fr..." she says, she then stops talking when everyone hears the sound of bells outside.

They all look around at each other, "What's that." says Carter, and they all head outside of the cabin, standing around they hear the sound again and looking up to the night sky, they see something moving across the sky.

As they look at each other in disbelief they hear the sound of bells and a deep jolly voice shout, "Ho..ho..ho. Merry Christmas." as they watch what can only be described as a sleigh moving across the sky leaving a silver glittering trail behind it.

Everyone huddles together and smile as they watch the magical sight.

They hear it once more.

"Ho..ho..ho. Merry Christmas."

* * *

**A/N: I hope you enjoyed my story and I want to wish everyone a very...**

**Happy Christmas**


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